Aerosmith Asks GOP House Whip Eric Cantor Not to Use Song

Republicans just need to figure out that outside of Kid Rock and Ted Nugent, they're probably going to run into some opposition when they try to appropriate pop music for their own goals, but after Heart, the Foo Fighers, and Jackson Browne, they still haven't learned their lesson.

Anyone paying any attention to American politics these past few weeks has doubtless noticed that contention over the Democrats' stimulus bill has all but monopolized news coverage these past few weeks. The bill passed the house easily despite the fact that the House Republicans voted unanimously against the bill two times in a row, and the bill scraped by with a filibuster-proof majority in the senate, 61-38.

Despite the fact that the bill passed two times in a row without a single republican vote in the House, Republican Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia put out a video claiming that the Republicans are back, and chose Aerosmith's "Back In The Saddle" to soundtrack the party's triumph of irrelevance. However, you can't see the video because it's been taken down, due to a copyright claim by Stage 3 Music, the company that owns the rights to the song.

According to the Daily Swarm, Connie Ashton, director of copyright and licensing at Stage 3 Music said, "Aerosmith did not approve of its use and also wanted to have it taken down."

You might remember that Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry is a republican, so maybe he just thought it was lame that Cantor was bragging about the fact that, despite voting against the bill unanimously, it still passed with ease because the Democrats still have 77 more members than the Republicans do. To watch Rachel Maddow explain why it's particularly funny that Cantor elected to use a song about banging a hooker, click here.